Johnny on the Spot

Well, that was unexpected. Not even a day removed from their 13-3 embarrassment of a loss to the Astros, the White Sox come back behind Johnny Cueto. Not only did Cueto throw seven shutout innings in a 7-0 White Sox win, Sox hitters beat up on longtime nemesis and future HOFer Justin Verlander. Verlander couldn’t get through the fourth inning, yielding seven runs (four earned, thank you, Jose Altuve) on nine hits, most of them singles to the right side. Considering that the Sox lineup consisted of nine righthanded hitters against the righthanded Verlander, that’s impressive. If hitting coach Frank Menechino had anything to do with it, hats off. If this was the idea of manager Tony La Russa, knock me over with a feather. Danny Mendick extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single while Andrew Vaughn (batting second, who knew?) and Luis Robert each picked up three hits, Roberts’ batting in four runs. The real surprise, though, has been catcher Seby Zavala, who wasn’t even on the 40-man roster until he was brought up a week ago. Last year, Zavala was mostly famine, with a little bit of power. This year, he looks to be an completely different hitter. In Charlotte, he was batting .282 with eight homeruns; with the Sox, he’s hitting .313 with a homer and four RBIs. How nice when the number-eight or -nine hitter can get on base and turn the order over. But one win is no better than a fig leaf; the Sox need to take the series. Their hopes rise or fall with Michael Kopech. Grandpa will be keeping an eye on the game and Baby Leo, who’s already tossing a ball at ten months.